The present invention relates to para-alkyl-substituted N-(4-hydroxy-3-methoxybenzyl)-cinnamic acid amides, to processes for the preparation thereof, to medicinal drugs containing these compounds, and to the use of these compounds for the preparation of medicinal drugs.
The treatment of pain, especially of neuropathic pain, is of great importance in the field of medicine. There is a worldwide need for effective therapies for pain. The urgent need for attaining patient-friendly, target-orientated treatment of chronic and non-chronic states of pain, by which is to be understood the successful and satisfactory treatment of pain in the patient, is also documented by the large number of scientific papers which have recently appeared in the field of applied analgesics and basic research on nociception.
A suitable approach to the treatment of pain, especially pain selected from the group consisting of acute pain, chronic pain, neuropathic pain, and visceral pain, preferably neuropathic pain, is the vanilloid receptor subtype 1 (VR1/TRPV1), which is frequently referred to as the capsaicin receptor. This receptor is stimulated inter alia by vanilloids such as, for example, capsaicin, heat, and protons and plays a central role in causing pain. Moreover, it is important for a large number of other physiological and pathophysiological processes, such as, for example, migraine; depression; neurodegenerative diseases; cognitive disorders; anxiety; epilepsy; coughing; diarrhoea; pruritus; motor neurone diseases; disorders of the cardiovascular system; disorders of food intake; medicinal drug dependency; medicinal drug abuse; and especially urinary incontinence.